Category: Grandparents

Letter to his Grandparents, Alfred and Grace Carver

                                                   Saturday evening
                                                    Sept 30, 1944

Dear Grandparents,
  How’s everything coming back there in that part of the country? I suppose school must be going in full swing by this time. I sure hope you are able to keep up with everything without working harder at it than you should. I don’t suppose you have had to do too much firing of the furnaces yet for heating purposes but it won’t be long till that’ll be a big item too.

By the way, what kind of weather have you been having lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if things aren’t just about ready for a frost. The temperature down here doesn't get quite so hot as it did but the days still make you think of summer. But at night it's something different. It often gets snappy enough that it makes you think of early fall evenings in Indiana. In fact it often gives me sort of a homesick feeling when I am outdoors just about dark or a little afterwards.

I suppose you have heard the news that we expect to be leaving here sometime now in the near future. But as you know it’s not like the army to tell us when and we have no idea how soon it’ll be. Since we are in the dark too as to where we’ll go, you can just about imagine how much wild guessing there has been done about where our next location will be.

Our work has been mostly concerned with just going over things we have learned before. So there’s no use going into any great discussion of that. As you might know we are still taking hikes and we even had one that lasted  for about three hours this very morning.

What kind of news has been going on in Orestes. The paper never has much of it so I have to pick it up in sort of a piece-meal fashion. I did hear though that you got a new neighbor the other day. How do Max and Peggy feel about the situation?

Richard surely must be putting a good bit of his energy into football this year. That’s the main part of school news that I am receiving now.

I hope Judy and all the rest of the little ones are getting along alright in school. I wonder how things are coming up at Aunt Mary’s. The last I heard she was still feeling pretty bum.

I’m about run down and I hope this will pass as a sort of an excuse for a letter. God bless  you in all your doings. Lots of love,
        Your grandson,
          Donald

No doubt you know that my Pvt. has been changed to Pfc. I’ll let you know as soon as possible of any change of my address.

Letter to his Grandparents, Alfred and Grace Carver

                                                  Saturday Evening
                                                  Sept 9, 1944
Hello Grandparents,

My I’ll bet you are doing some flying around now trying to get everything in shape for school to start. From what Mother has been telling me you must be getting things pretty well rounded up by this time. Since they waited till so much of the summer was gone before they started getting things for you to work with, I know that you have had to work pretty hard these last few weeks.

Maybe after things get running good it won’t be quite so hard for you as it was last year. You’ll know a little more what to expect and how to do what has to be done. I sure hope you don’t have to work quite so hard as you did part of the time last year.

I understand that the new teacher has been selected and that Daddy and the other teachers have decided on making a few changes that should help things to run a little smoother. I can’t help out much but I sure wish you all a very successful school year. It sure would be great if I could be back continuing the schooling that I want to get done. But we’ll just have to trust this day will come soon.

As far as myself, I’ve been doing about the same old stuff. The popular opinion though is that we’ll be getting a change of scenery in the near future. But how, where or when, of course, we don’t know. There is a lot of wild talk, as usual, but I actually think we’ll go  to another camp here in the States for a while yet. I have enumerated for you a thousand times, more-or-less, the kinds of work we do and since nothing unusual along that line has happened I’ll not go into it again.

How’s the weather back there now? We’ve been having some really hot weather but it seems that about every two weeks we have to get a cool rainy spell. As I remember it we had one of these snaps week-end before last and then in a few days it warmed up again. Then it came again night before last and since then we have needed a jacket. The sun tried to shine some this evening though so it may be warming up again.

What kind of news has been happening in Orestes? I would sure be very happy if I could come backpack and see things for myself before too much longer. I suppose the way our moving turns out will decide about this so we’ll just have to hope for the best.

Well this isn’t too much of a letter but I’m about out of news and it’ll let you know that I’m still O.K. As the old saying goes - “Be good and God bless you”. 
             Love,
              Donald

Letter to his Grandparents, Alfred and Grace Carver

                                           Saturday Evening. Aug 26

Dear Grandparents,
  I thought that I would write to you tomorrow but I have just a little time tonight. If I get part of my writing done now I’ll feel a little easier about sleeping late in the morning. I always intend to get up in time for church but I tell you it sure feels good to sort of catch up on your rest on Sunday morning after a hard week. I am very thankful to the good Lord that it is still possible for me to rest and worship on His day.

Before I forget it I want to thank you for your part in the package I received the other day. The cookies were so crisp and fresh that it seemed they had been freshly baked when they got here. And they sure were good; that kind of cookies would tickle my appetite at any time. And the vaseline has come in handy for a million things - more or less - in just the few days I have had it. It is good to soften up the callouses on my feet as you suggested and I have used it a lot to relieve galled places on my body. By keeping the skin on my hand soft it has also just about cured sort of a rash that was bothering me. So you can see I’ve sure put it to good use. Thanks a whole bushel for everything!

Although we worked last week, I can truthfully say that we had a much easier schedule than we had the few weeks previous. We were studying more basic subjects and doing less of the problem type work that we had been doing. Also we didn’t even take one real long hike the whole week.

I guess that Fall is beginning to seem pretty close to you now. It sure doesn’t seem to to me that the tomato canning season could be here already. School time is almost here too and I hope you can get everything done down there you want before it starts. How are you and the new principal going to get along? Ha Ha!1His father, Willis Tappan, was starting as the new principal

Mother tells me that you are beginning to have some pretty cool weather - especially at night. Well the nights here have been cooling up a little too but there has only been about one night that I’ve needed more than a sheet over me. The way it gets hot here in the day time after being cool in the night reminds me of the way Georgia acted last Fall.

I am still as much at a loss to know what I’ll be doing as I have always been. But you know that I am still hoping and praying for the time when all this will be a thing of the past. I hope you are as well as usual and are getting along alright with your work. I pray God’s richest blessings to rest on you.
         Your loving grandson, 
           Donald